Sarah Boden

Reporter

Sarah Boden is a general assignment reporter for Iowa Public Radio based in Des Moines. Before coming to Iowa, she was a freelance reporter and radio producer in the Twin Cities. In addition to IPR, Sarah's work has appeared on NPR, WBUR's "Here and Now" and Harvest Public Media.

Sarah's favorite public radio program is All Things Considered.

Ways To Connect

A clinical trial vaccinating people in Guinea exposed to Ebola virus has been found to have a 100 percent efficacy. That means none of the 2,000-plus people researchers immediately vaccinated got the virus.

Part of this vaccine was developed at Ames-based New Link Genetics. Swati Gupta is an executive director of Merck Vaccines which licensed the Ebola vaccine from New Link. Gupta says now, more trials are underway to administer the vaccine to people who need it.

A group of Iowa landowners is suing the Iowa Utilities Board, saying it’s an effort to protect their property from eminent domain.

The plaintiffs claim that agents from the proposed Dakota Access pipeline have told them if they don’t agree to easements that allow the pipeline onto their property, they will have their land seized by the state. The plaintiffs' attorney Bill Hanigan says the state’s utilities board has no authority to grant eminent domain because the pipeline will not be providing a utility to Iowans.

Avian influenza has devastated poultry production in Iowa and Minnesota this year. Things might get worse if the virus returns this fall when wild birds migrate south, so the U.S. poultry industry has gathered this week in Des Moines to discuss strategy.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack says his agency is also working to identify potential disposal sites for bird carcasses affected by the virus. Some poultry producers have complained that removing euthanized birds takes too long, and many landfills have been resistant to take them.

Researchers at Iowa State University say they’ve found a link between insulin resistance and risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Insulin regulates blood sugar throughout the body. In brains of Alzheimer’s patients, blood sugar use tends to be lower in areas that generate memories, especially regarding times, dates, names and facts.

According to a new study by ISU’s Auriel Willette and Barbara Bendlin from the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute, insulin resistance may not only predispose someone to Alzheimer’s, but it also affects a cognitively normal person’s memory function.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton says none of the emails she sent or received using her private server while Secretary of State were marked “classified” at the time. Clinton told a gathering at the 3rd Congressional District Democratic Central Committee in Winterset on Saturday that she has “no idea” what the emails contained.

On Thursday, Inspector General Charles McCullough said four emails contained classified information, though they were not marked as such.

The Iowa City Police Department is updating its arrest policy to emphasize communication after a cell phone video surfaced online. The footage, filmed last month, shows the arrest of a 15-year-old black male by white police officer, Travis Graves, at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center.

Roosevelt High School student Glori Dei Filippone of Des Moines is being honored with the ACLU of Iowa’s annual Mannheimer Youth Advocacy Award.

This past January the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based Christian group with anti-LGBTQ views, planned to picket East High School in Des Moines. The then-16-year-old Filippone and her friend Cole Rehbein organized a lunch-time “Love Rally” where they chanted messages of support for LGBTQ equality. Roughly 700 students from across Des Moines attended the rally.

USDA officials say they are planning for a worst-case scenario as there is a possibility of avian influenza returning this fall, when birds migrate south for the winter.

Dr. Jack Shere with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says it’s worrying that avian flu seems to be slowly moving east. This mean the virus could turn up in states that haven’t yet been affected.

A Remsen, Iowa man will spend six weekends in prison for violating the Clean Water Act. Michael J. Wolf pleaded guilty last year to one count of knowingly discharging a pollutant into the west branch of the Floyd River.

Wolf was employed as the maintenance manager at Sioux-Preme Packing Co., a pork processor based in Sioux City. On October 23 and 24, for about 11 hours, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says Wolf intentionally discharged blood, fecal material, animal guts and cleaning chemicals from the company's Sioux Center plant into the Floyd.

The first Democrat has jumped into the race for Iowa’s Third Congressional District to challenge Republican Rep. David Young. Desmund Adams, a Clive-based entrepreneur who lost a bid for the state Senate in 2012, announced his candidacy on Monday at Drake University.

Drake political scientist Dennis Goldford says though Congressman Young is the incumbent, he could be vulnerable because he’s a freshman.

"Usually if somebody can survive that sophomore election...he can be in there as long as he wants almost, barring some scandal," Goldford says.

Iowa ranks first in the U.S. for having the highest percentage of wind energy used on its electrical grid, but a new industry report by the American Wind Energy Association and the Wind Energy Foundation says there is room to grow. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy, the report finds that 28 percent of Iowa electricity in 2014 was generated by wind, and that number could grow to 40 percent by 2020.

The founder and former owner of a Cedar Rapids-based meat supplier has been found guilty of 15 counts of fraud in federal district court on Monday. Midamar founder Bill Aossey faces more than a century in prison for fraudulently labeling beef so it appeared to meet certain Islamic standards when it did not. He also was convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud.

Many veterans have a hard time finding employment when they return to civilian life, though some have landed jobs in the wake of bird flu.

Veteran Enterprises is a veteran-owned business that does government contracting. Owner-operator Garth Carlson says he’s currently involved with the cleaning and disinfecting of six bird flu affected facilities in Iowa and Minnesota.

Carlson served two tours in Kosovo and two tours in Iraq with the army, but today he disinfects livestock facilities.

The benefits of exercise are well documented, but it can difficult to make time to hit the gym. But when developing a good workout schedule, is it more important to focus on forming habits on how you exercise, or habits that make you decide to exercise?

According to ISU health psychologist L. Alison Phillips, it's the latter. She says strong patterns that prompt you to initiate exercise are key to frequent workouts.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing Tuesday on avian influenza’s impact on the U.S. poultry industry. The USDA has come under scrutiny for its handling of the outbreak.

One topic of discussion are the indemnities provided to affected producers who must euthanize their entire flock when the virus is detected. The USDA is considering a new indemnity formula in light of criticism that the current calculation short changes producers.

The transgender community has become increasingly visible this year. That’s thanks in part to celebrities like reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, video blogger Aydian Dowling and actress Laverne Cox.

Based on media coverage, one might assume that to be happy and transgender in America, you have to live in a larger city, but that’s not the case. There are many trans people living in small towns in Iowa and across the country.

Angus Pollock is a personal chef in Storm Lake. Pollock was assigned the gender of female at birth, and has lived most of his life as a woman or girl.

Iowa is the first state nationwide to move all of its document filings for the district court system online. The process will likely be completed later this year for Iowa’s appellate courts.

Up until now, many Iowans had go to their country courthouse during business hours to deal with legal matters. People can now file and view legal documents using the internet, and see the court docket online.

In his first visit to Iowa since officially declaring his candidacy for president, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rulings in favor of both same-sex marriage and Obamacare subsidies. The Republican governor says the U.S. Supreme Court is no longer acting as a judicial body, but a public-polling body.

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, Iowa’s health insurance model will remain intact.

King v. Burwell dealt with imprecise wording that called into question whether states participating in the federal healthcare exchange could receive subsidies that lower the cost of insurance premiums.

Because it uses a state-federal partnership exchange, it was unclear how much federal money Iowa stood to lose. But Pete Damiano of the University of Iowa’s Public Policy Center, says this ruling means Iowans will continue to receive federally-subsidized premiums.

The Iowa Supreme Court says telemedicine abortions in Iowa are allowable. In 2013 the Iowa Board of Medicine created rules that effectively banned abortions performed by video conference, but the state’s high court says these rules create an undue burden for women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Bill Northey attended an avian influenza support prayer supper in Buena Vista County Wednesday night. The picnic of pulled pork sandwiches and salads was in support of affected poultry producers.

Northey told the group of roughly 175 people that communities need to pull together during difficult times.

“It’s important to do what you’re doing tonight. And that’s put your arms around the folks that went through this, let them know how much you care,” Northey says. “We’ll get through this.”

Billionaire real estate magnate Donald Trump made his first Iowa visit Tuesday, after officially declaring his candidacy for president earlier in the day. The Republican told a crowd of roughly 450 people at the Hoyt Sherman Place auditorium in Des Moines that his wealth would keep him independent of special interests while serving in the White House.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case next term involving a $5.8 million class-action lawsuit arising from a pork processing plant in northwest Iowa. Tyson Foods Inc. say that employees at its Storm Lake facility don't have enough in common to join in a single class-action lawsuit.

The price of eggs used by food manufacturers has more than tripled in recent months. That’s largely thanks to the outbreak of bird flu spreading throughout Iowa, the nation’s number one egg production state.

In 2011, Victor Hernandez-Galarza pleaded guilty to using a false social security number to title vehicles. Because of his "willingness to surrender" Hernandez-Galarza was offered a deferred judgment for lesser charges.

Hernandez-Galarza successfully completed probation and his record was expunged.